then an update on the latest in syria, including an effort to locate and destroy the country's chemical weapons with mona yacou bian. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning, it is a back to work week for both the house and senate. secretary of state john kerry making an unannounced visit to egypt today. detroit and new york electing mayors. voters in new jersey and new york will be electing a new governor. morning and we are going to begin with a new gallup poll, asking you about the state of your life and your thoughts about the country in general. to you feel more optimistic

about where you are going? do you have the opportunities to get ahead? we are asking the yes and -- asking a yes and no question. the number is -- you can also send us an e-mail, send us a tweet, or join us on facebook.com. this is what the question looks like on our twitter page. do you think there is an opportunity to get ahead in america i? , ifd on the new gallup poll you want to check it out it is online at gallup.com. opportunitynty of to get ahead here in america. the survey was released over the last couple of days. while the u.s. has historically prided itself on an open ended

mobility, celebrating rags to riches stories, rising income inequality and a normally -- and abnormally high unemployment rate can call the question just how accurate this cherished belief is. politicians have focused on reducing social inequality as a key part of their policy initiatives. fewer believing there is opportunity to get ahead. -- to get ahead." 7:00 eastern time as we moved back one hour as wheat and daylight savings time over the weekend. let's share some of the headlines from some of the newspapers around the country. a preview of the vote in new jersey and new jersey -- in new jersey and virginia as chris christie is expected to be -- expected to win the election. some polls show a dead heat with ken cuccinelli.

we will talk more about virginia politics with charlie cook. we will also preview the upcoming midterm elections. there is this, what is at stake. and of the stark choices heavy consequences that face the commonwealth of for junior. of these headlines are courtesy of the museum. "l.a. times" has the story from lax and the shooting from the airport. the headline from "the boston sunday globe," as a red sox fan win -- fans celebrate winning the world series. in the front page of "the chicago tribune" has this headline -- the analysis finding that chicago through the legions of dollars from bond money in 2000

to meet its short-term budget needs. the reckless borrowing and -- ding speed some of the headlines on this sunday. let's begin with your calls and comments on the opportunity to get ahead in america. we are asking a yes or no question. iran is joining us come up early from alaska. go ahead. us, up earlyoining from alaska. go ahead. i am in support of the new alaska pipeline going it connectsto where with the rest of the united states. however, when this proposed gas line was put on paid her -- on my personal opinion nothing was thoroughly prepared as far as making sure there

would be no future damaging to as far as security preventing any kind of spills in any way, shape, or form. the other opportunity is to be creative as equal opportunity employment for college students that are in college, as opposed to them coming to alaska to fish with the fishing industries hoping and praying that it will not only be a good season but they can make enough money to return back to school. whereas the united states coast guard can get involved, provided the same training techniques that the coast guard receives, to local communities so that young people can have an opportunity to assist in managing the fisheries and , just likeur state to do from the seattle puget sound the canadian border. thank you for joining the

conversation. this is from robert evans, who has this point -- the gallup organization has been conducting this whole since the early 1950s. the same question was asked in 1952. here are the results. eight percent said not much of an opportunity to get ahead in america. in 1952, as back with comparison to 1998. 17% said there's not much opportunity to get ahead. 81% said plenty of opportunity. though that these figures. --y are available online look at these figures, they are available online. 57% said plenty of

opportunity but 41% said not much. this year the numbers are shrinking even more, 43% saying not much opportunity and 52% same plenty of opportunity. phone from the savannah, georgia. -- say no, why gecko caller: why gecko -- why? i really do not see it right now. those who do have opportunity and make it, i think they are just lucky. i don't see it in america. i am kind of disgusted. host: where would you live? caller: i would probably go abroad were you can get free education, free medical benefits, and not worry about the racial issues.

host: if it is free, who pays for it to? caller: not sure who pays for the listening to your program and listening to other countries , i would less stressed at least give them an opportunity. you mean denmark, right -- right?er: caller: denmark. host: monti has this point -- you can call in to join the conversation -- do you feel you have the

opportunity to get ahead in america ayako from michigan, jessica is up next. good morning. -- in america? from michigan, jessica is up next. good morning. caller: it is hard to get ahead in america when asians are taking our jobs here and taking our jobs overseas. the media believes we need a bunch of schooling to get ahead. i think that is wrong. host: thank you for the call. looking at the comparison of the chart we showed you from 1952 -- james is next from grand forks, north to code up. you say you do not have the opportunity to get ahead in this country, why? i have to say no i have

to say that is where i come from. , c-spanegular caller junkie for 15 years. my current worker. i have to go 60 miles for a better life. it is hard, especially with the weather getting cold. i have some good jobs out here. i lost a finger out here in the agro business and had to get patched up. back home in pennsylvania i was going to a general torilla position -- to a janitorial position. 50 men for a car wash job. is theam blown away by continuing unending mass of third world immigration. we have 3.1 people -- 3.1

million people come here every year. i think there is opportunity. i believe in hope and change. i believe in a better world. i don't speak for north dakota. the good people out here are probably the toughest men i have ever met in my life out here did -- out here. i see whole crews of women landscapers, men in the oil fields, there are mostly white and black eyes out here. the idea that you need illegal immigrants to work the business, or even the harvested -- i worked in the harvest and there were a lot of mexicans but a lot of white guys to. a lot of indians even. say, i the hard part to do not understand why democrats,

women who have a child that is even if he has an education he's finished. i have been -- i am 49 and i have been through the ringer of reverse discrimination. i don't know how you vote against the interest of your race and people. we have to have a loyalty or your children are going to be finished. thank you for sharing your story. if you are just tuning in or joining us on c-span radio, which is heard nationwide, we have moved to xm channel 120. we are asking if you feel you have the opportunity to get ahead in america. there's this from robin who says -- following newsmakers, which airs every sunday after washington journal, you'll hear the

testimony of kathleen sebelius. she testified this past week before the house energy and commerce committee. here it in its entirety at 10:35 eastern time. reporting this morning that healthcare.gov has gone dark over the weekend. you try to login this morning, it is unavailable. just part of the problems that healthcare.gov has been facing. the department of health and human services will be making updates to the application and enrollment tools. the website is expected to be back sometime after 9 a.m. this morning. from new york, michael is joining us. caller: one of the biggest problems we face in america today is the outsourcing of american jobs. ahead, bute can get

we need to start creating industry here. congress has a big problem. there is a message for you, there is where the broken wheel lives. join and fixte and this problem with unemployment in america. are going to have to see both parties come together. as far as the fanatical organization goes, i think they also need to look at the core facts that america has to go back to work. everyone has to join together. that goes all the way up to the top. we have to unite the country. bring it back together. thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. there is this from ron.

wolfgang in "the washington " is focusing on the president's weekly address -- that is what it is all about, the stakes for the middle class here go the president taking aim at sequestration cuts created he says it has helped -- sequestration cuts. the president's address was short on specifics but it did offer clues to the overall

approach to budget negotiations. deadline, the agreement is set to be in place if they work out a plan by the middle of december. the first round of meetings held by senator patty murray, democratic chair of the budget committee. future negotiations are scheduled in the week ahead. the houses back in session this week. the senate was here last week. those chambers here until the say -- until the thanksgiving day recess.s -- bonnie is joining us from riverton, wyoming. you say this is not the land of opportunity. it is a land of opportunity but with a government that is the only thing that is working, we have too much government. care about our people. we do not look at things like we used to.

we better go back to the bible, better go and listen to people when they say what is happening is right there in the bible. i do believe this is the best country in the whole world. this is the best. if somebody thinks they need to be taking care of the need to go somewhere else. we have never been taking care of. do for ourselves and we appreciate what we have got. thank you very much for your c- span. this is a piece from joe davidson from washington post --

tony is joining us from orlando, florida. welcome to the program. caller: good morning. i love the show. of it is great. if the government work with the people to get ahead, they could have more opportunity to do that. i look at this as an opportunity for small businesses. dishwasher, i worked harder than anyone else. i worked at a restaurant for 18 years. i couldn't have anyone -- i couldn't get anyone to come in and help. i hired people from poland who had to degrees in accounting who on immigration

visas just to work. the regulations they put on people hurt the opportunity for the american dream. to me the american dream was work hard, you have an opportunity on a business -- it is not that way anymore. you better work hard for the government if you want to get ahead these days. it is a shame. that is not the america i knew. that lady should go to denmark. we have a hard time supporting her. host: thank you for the call. steve is joining us from west palm beach, florida. caller: good morning. good morning. i cannot the two terribly illustrative ash cannot be too terribly illustrative, i have been -- i cannot be too terribly illustrative. a lot ofen doing a studying of the united states economy going back to revolutionary times. there were a lot of periods

where the economy was very volatile. you were so many booms and busts in the 19th century and so on. the last 25 years, from 1890 to from was very sehgal -- 1990 22 thousand seven, was very stable. 1990 to 2007 was very stable. if you never owned a house you might go from a time when you live alone in a single apartment to where you have to have a roommate back to where you can afford a single apartment and back and forth depending on what is.economy if people lose that resiliency they feel there is no opportunities to get ahead. that is basically what i want to say. journal.comnational --

but he railed along the way -- schedule got derailed on long the way. the senate would tackle a number of nominations. the employee nondiscrimination act and drug legislation -- one clarification, the houses back next week. they will return after the veterans day holiday. sandy is joining us from phoenix, arizona. you say this is not the land of opportunity. why is that? caller: it used to be. people could start up a business and thrive. friend opened up a cigarette store. you could go in and make it --

and make your own cigarettes a lot cheaper, half the price of a regular pack. i guess the big companies did not like it. they decided to take it to court and sue it -- and sue them. now they have this electric cigarette that they companies -- that big companies do not like either. they are going to tax them out of business. arizona, big mesa they have thousands of cars completely wasted and crushed. host: thank you for the call. a political note from the hill -- paper

an ad is airing tomorrow that uses past statements, slamming charlie crist. he was once theory governor of florida as a republican. he will enter as a democrat after filing the necessary paperwork on friday. details online at the hill.com. our newsmakers program is focusing on the farm bill with tom vill sack -- with tom vill ilsack. tom v conversation, why the farm bill is important -- [video clip] investing literally

billions of dollars in business development. money is going to be invested in renewable energy and bio-based products. it is a research built. it will provide resources to universities to come up with new innovations. because of our research initiatives, i think 360 four patent applications have occurred just from usda sponsored grants. it is a conservation bill and an ability to protect our soil and water. it is a trade bill. this creates the resources with which we can promote agricultural trade. heart of what is lost in the discussion in this town is the scope of this bill. on thes so narrowly commodity title, on the snap title and the nutrition title, we fail to recognize everything in between. that is why i am encouraging congress to get this done.

yes there are consequences. but the benefits are huge. frankly, if we want to talk about jobs and infrastructure, if we want to talk about renewable energy, if we want to talk about trade, it is in this bill. if people recognize that, i think they will encourage their members of congress to get this done and quickly. why this hasyou such a widespread effect that the administration still seems to be standing on the sidelines? >> i don't think that is a fair characterization of what we are doing. we are providing the technical assistance and creative thought create -- bit of thought request from the committee. -- creative thought request from the committee. i am meeting with ranking members and other members of the conference committee. the process is ongoing. i am not sure what folks would expect us to do beyond that. important thing to do, to provide the tools and

equipment and to knowledge and information and data that will allow these conference committee members to get to the right policy. former governor of iowa, now the agriculture secretary, joining us on the mist maker -- on the newsmakers program. do you feel you have the opportunity to get ahead in america? we are asking a yes and no question. we are also taking your tweets and e-mails. this is from one of our viewers -- maurice is joining us from ohio. you say yes, why? you have to work a little bit harder than you used to. youhave to be smarter and have to watch the landmines the government sets out for you. besides all that you can work hard and put your nose to the

grindstone. inry day you have to put eight hours. i came to this country when i was eight years old. i got educated, i had my knocks. i own a business and i do well. host: thank you for the call. page above the fold, more on healthcare.gov. healthcare.gov, how a startup failed to launch -- and a report with extensive behind-the-scenes on how the troubled website was launched in some of the lessons dating back to 2010 when those e-mails and memos were first sent back and forth between white house staffers. let me share with you an opening paragraph or two.

the president's top economic aids were getting worried -- moving to the a page --

from "thef editorials new york times," this one taking aim at the president's promises -- a frequent guest on this program has this piece from inside "the weekly standard," it is called "the debacle for liberalism." he writes --

>> this conclusion from pete winner. baxter calls. pete is joining us from starkville, mississippi. is this the land of opportunity in america? be, but it isd to increasingly getting to not be the land of opportunity. have a job where work over eight hours a day. i work overtime every week, sometimes as much as 60 hours a week. it seems like more and more, income is going to pay for the free education and health care and food of the lady from georgia. i kind of wish we could go back where wesh recession

all had jobs and could afford the fuel in a car. that's all i have to say. ok.: thanks for the call. robert lambert has his point. from the "jerusalem post" there is the story. pineda was receiving an award saying it is the supreme leader who is the key and not likely to give up uranium enrichment. we have to remain strong, we have to remain consistent. you can read the details online from the "jerusalem post."

bellevue, same as the mental hospital down in new york city. america is a land of opportunity. fascinated byrly the gentleman who called from north dakota, because they're close to canada and they are mostly of german descent, soliciting north dakota. i worked with people from north dakota and god bless them all, they are stout. just as you caller said. to -- sure, there are a lot of barriers to commerce inherent to the u.s. government

-- the the federal's federalists just want money. that is why they ship all the jobs overseas. ok, daniel. thanks for the call. influence and image. our focus this week is may me eisenhower. she only had one press conference as first lady of the united states. known fory popular her pink seamless gowns and bangs. the life of mainly eisenhower, c-span's first lady's series. tune in tomorrow evening at 9:00 eastern time, 6:00 for those of you on the west coast or also carried on c-span radio. bob is joining us from baton rouge, louisiana. good morning. the first thing we have

to do so we can have our country muslimss get all these out of the white house and our government. mail this mohammed eli the area now said we are a muslim country now. who is he? caller: he is the head of the homeland security. he is not ahead of it, but he has a high position in it. host: and where did you get that quote? caller: open your eyes. all you have to do is search on the internet and you can find all the stuff. another thing.

egypte having trials in .omorrow one of the ones that is going to be there is more see. morsi is obama's best friend. bob from baton rouge, louisiana. thanks recall. -- thanks for the call. can check out his remarks at c-span.org. this morning's front page of "the new york times." the president will be campaigning in northern virginia . chris christie is expected to win in new jersey.

democrat barbara bona is challenging the new jersey republican. that story front page of "the new york times." a look at the statistics courtesy of the gallup organization to give your sense of just where the country was back in the 1950s during the start of the eisenhower administration on the question of whether or not you feel there is a opportunity to move ahead in america. back in 1952, eight percent said not much of an opportunity .umber 87% said yes we show you how to change over the years as we listen to joe, who's joining us from bethesda, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning, steve. great show, really appreciated. this is absolutely still the land of opportunity. challenged just like a government to live within the means that we are provided. that is what america is all about. i do think there is one significant issue that is currently holding many back right now.

are a couple of very powerful social said the books of commodities may. right now, in the united states there are over 10 million u.s. that of all races all ages have impregnated multiple women. the vast majority of those children that are born the cost from the first day of birth of a child is being born in many almonds exclusively from the federal government. many children were being born discreetly by the families and etc. families. i do think that one significant fundamental step if a just from a personal accountability from the individual, the mail and also the extended family. i think that would make a big difference financially for our country.

danielle neuhauser. -- daniel newhauser. from one of our tweeters there is this. two more calls. andrew from manassas, virginia. you say no this is not the land of opportunity, why is that? caller: it is a land of dwindling opportunity. we are still better than most places. we at least one of the opportunity. -- we're drooling opportunity

because government regulation is really pushing the individual the, the business is down, desire to have a more expansive, more intrusive government has really started to intrude on the ability to build anger businesses. it affordable care is a good example of that. people like myself who own businesses who have individual healthcare policies are being their insurance and into the more expensive exchange. stopped.d have been a opinion is the lack of independent press in this country is really the problem. we have a press that did not look at the regulations. they do not expose -- they're too many people in the press who

believe in a more expansive, more intrusive government. leaningress would stop so heavily left, if we didn't have just one right-leaning cable network and we had a more independent press, the affordable care act regulation among others would have been exposed long before it would've been enacted and long before he was allowed to do damage. ok andrew, thanks for the call. good morning. caller: i feel this is still the land of opportunity for the wealthy and the rich, primarily white people. but not for regular working people. take a look over one shoulder the at the capital building -- take a look over your right shoulder at the capital building. capital, wee your would take your labor, you get to get paid for that.

how can that not be the land of opportunity. until we face that ruben to be stuck with this thing that we have come with all the racial .roblems that we have i'm more american than you and all this craziness. we would turn attention to wall street in the stock market. the front page of the "detroit free press. phil who can fix a broken trite. joining us live on the phone from the motor city is carol kane. >> welcome to as the world turns, motor city style. >> we carry the debate as you moderated. poll showing that mike duggan is ahead in this race.

what about benny napoleon who did receive the endorsement of john conyers. >> this is what i would call a historic unique mayoral race. this has been one of the more protracted and unique graces. get mike duggan the farmers see eo of a large hospital system and a former wayne county prosecutor. former detroit police chief in lawfuture enforcement. mike duggan who happens to be white dominated in the primary by 20 points. there are lawsuits galore, left and right during the primary and then napoleon got kicked off the ballot. he wants a right and campaign button. last week, it is interesting because so much is being focused on what the polls show and that is that mike is leaving. certainly, that is an important

story, no national media is looking at that. -- a loty is that some of people are upset about the voting rights of citizens of detroit being taken away because the city was in essence being rembrandt emergency manager. certainly the city has financial woes, and governor snyder was -- thatto put in administers prescribed by in a few weeks. i thinkolls are right, that is going to be fascinating to watch and will play out politically. the date line is detroit did she points out that your government has been testifying in the courthouse dealing with the bankruptcy case inside detroit. also, as you just mentioned, and emergency manager.

>> oh guest: we think about the saga the detroiters have had to put up with the mass couple of years. surely this mayoral race has taken more attention. with like fighting newspapers and websites. >> when we checked in with you before the debate every carrier in the c-span network, i think he said the number was 2 million back in 1952. evan hundred thousand people today living in detroit. the city needs to shrink. hundred 39 square miles is one of the largest city in the country. at this point in time there are not that many people living there. it needs to shrink. services need to come back and there needs to be in reinvention havetroit as many cities had to be doing in these recent years. again, with the emergence

manager coming in, filing -- just a there's a lot of controversy and things going on with detroit being the largest but certainly not unique in his problems. were the federal dollars sent to detroit not a bailout or emergency assistance. or was money used for and how much. guest: detroit is really a tale of two cities. give the downtown area where there is a resurgence going on. and businesses. out in the neighborhood this is where the light is, crime is so pronounced, that really is where the money is intended to help, with things like light, taking down abandoned billion things -- taking down abandoned bill buildings. typically it has been light as

far as echoes, but i go back to the fact that there are so many people who care about detroit and the hope is that every time more people will show up, but we will have to wait and see on that. host: the headline from the "detroit free press." carol kane here is a columnist for the detroit free press and cbs 62 in detroit, thanks for adding your perspective. guest: thanks so much. bergen take a short break and when he return we would take a look at politics. also we would take a look at 2014 and his list of some of the top races. first, look video sunday shows, all of which can be heard on c- span radio.

all heard on xm channel 120. good morning, nancy. >> on today's sunday tv talk shows, the topics in clue the implementation of the affordable care act, pending nominations in the u.s. senate and the situation in syria. you can your rebroadcast of the programs on c-span radio beginning at noon eastern time with nbc's meet the press. today's guests include former massachusetts governor bob mckim mitt romney and the current governor deval patrick. white house adviser dan pfeiffer and republican senator rand paul. the 2 p.m. it is fox news sunday, guests include dr. ezekiel emanuel. an architect of the affordable care act. seniormes cupp reddick, fellow at the ethics and public policy center along with republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina. cnn's state of the union follows at 3 p.m., candy crowley sits down with new hampshire

republican senator kelly ayotte. also former house speaker newt gingrich. at four, his face and nation from cbs. host bob schieffer welcomes intelligence committee chairman democratic senator dianne feinstein and house intelligence committee chair republican congressman mike rogers. also michael hayden, his former head of the national security agency and the cia. sunday night were tv talk shows on c-span radio. it brought tears of public service by c-span. abc this week, 2 p.m. fox news sunday. 3 p.m. the state of union and at 4 p.m. eastern time facing nation from cbs. listen to them all on c-span radio. and 90.1 fm here in the washington dc area across the country on xm satellite radio channel 120 you can download a free app for your smart phone or listen online.

at c-span radio.org. >> john foster dulles had recently died when that super airport out in chantilly, virginia was being rebuilt. president eisenhower immediately made announced at the airport would be called the dulles airport. there was pushed back from others and finally the decision was made to name it after dulles. you can still see the film clip of kennedy opening the airport with eisenhower there and allen dulles there and he pulled back a curtain and behind the curtain is his giant bust of john foster dulles. that bust stands in the middle of this big airport. so in to see it while i was writing this book. i couldn't find it. i started asking the security guards, where is a big bust of dollars. nobody even heard of it. there is a long process and finally, thanks to the washington airports authority, i was able to discover that the

bust had been taken away from its place. it is now in a closed conference room opposite baggage claim number three. i find this a wonderful metaphor for how the dulles brothers, who at one time exercises earth shattering power and were able to make and break governments, have now been effectively forgotten and airbrushed out of our entire history. >> with john foster at cia, the brothers operated over in covert operations. some 60 years later, with stephen kinzer. tonight at eight on c-span's q&a. >> washington journal continues. host: we want to welcome back to c-span the editor of "the cook report." guest: good morning steve, i

think is 28 years now. keep welcoming you back. yesterday by senator chuck schumer. this is the headline from "the washington post." guest: i think the operative term is is. that is a $64,000 question. in washington there is this widespread assumption there is a hundred percent chance that she runs. i think it is a lot more likely than not that she runs, but there is a number and a big number. this is a question. how she feeling. knowing what a tough time she had the latter part of her tenure as secretary of state, hauser has been doing?

does she feel up to it? she's been to be 69 and going into election day 2016 four years older than she was when she left office, i think 75% chance she runs, but these things are personal decisions as well as political decisions. i think people tend to underestimate to the extent that the personal aspects and nonpolitical as well. least some at investigation into whether or not your boring i was considering the ticket in 2012. there was some talk about it. you biden was in iowa earlier this year and martin o'malley will be in new hampshire later this month. you have to assume that it's a constant idea are we going to steer with the current vice president or switch. that must at least be brought up once.

how serious is, the talk to switch. that is pretty hard to quantify. that is probably in the eye of the beholder. out the "cooked cookal report -- the political report." to have aody seems clear advantage where there is a very legitimate debate over which side is more likely to win. all this is sort of art based on science. it is a little bit of both. , first of all, jennifer duffy, our senate or governor, editor. she has been doing this since 1988. i have been doing it since 1984. have seen every seat come out.

what we hear from strategist, what we have from people was talked in the state, what the numbers look like. what the opposition looks like. restart a for the general assessment and these things evolve over the course of an election cycle. mcconnell oftch kentucky. the senate republican leader and the democratic side mark dreier who is seeking reelection. then you have to currently democratic seats that are leaning republican in montana and west virginia. a number of lean democratic seats held by democrats baggage another in indiana, mary landrieu in indiana. carl levin is retiring in michigan and kay hagan who is seeking reelection in north carolina. the way i start offending it up seatsre are 34 democratic that are not up this time.

31 republican. then thereabouts seven gimme putts for democrats. are eight states that we're pretty sure we know. it could change the world for the sure we know where it will go. , shouts inlorado hawaii, marquis in massachusetts, shaheen in new hampshire, collins in maine. there's ira, michigan, al .ranken we pretty sure the servants say democrat, but it could change. under the hide their three democratic seats that we think of probably going over to the republican side. open season montana, south dakota, west virginia. you sort of assume all that just for the sake of argument, the senate comes under succeeds. two of them, georgia and kentucky on the republican side,

, ofka, baggage, arkansas the six, because republicans are the have two, republicans have to win five out of six to take a majority in the senate. five of six. that is pretty hard. let's assume for a second that republicans hang on to georgia and kentucky and both of those are states that are very much up in the air. that means that republicans would have to knock out three of these four democratic incumbents. , but when you consider that for the whole 2006, 2008,004, 2010, 2000 12, republicans knocked off a grand total of senateummit -- three incumbents, they have to do that in one election cycle. during that same span, 11 republican senate incumbents lost.

we're looking at something with a path is very narrow for republicans. there's very little margin for error. , alllipside of that is these key states that we think will give control, north carolina only by two points, georgia by eight and the rest of them by really big numbers, in some cases over 20. the big wildcard card in all of this is in kentucky. either you didn't get the nomination against senator mitch mcconnell, or how much damage as you do. ways of looking at it. one is the damage it can do attacking the cattle, but her second way of looking at it is how much does he restrict maneuverability that mcconnell to position himself best for general election.

i'll say that the attacks against him are in many ways unfair. if i look at the mcconnell, -- it keepsdevon mcconnell from maneuvering, maximizing his messaging to win a general election. summerspeech over the and fancy farm, one of the attacks at mitch mcconnell put forth was towards allison andgren grandfather who has long history in kentucky politics. she is a relative unknown it doesn't have a long paper trail. who is she, what you should bring to the race as a democrat? one of the things you want is somebody that doesn't have a voting record heard some of it is never u.s. senate, houses the legislative voting record would've had to make tough

choices and be attacked on the choices. in a sense, she doesn't have a good record, along record that mcconnell can attack. under the hand, she's fresh, she's new. to me, the general election is going to come down to this, kentucky's aside whether or not muslim voters. people are pretty much a republican or democrat. the question in my mind is this. mcconnell got 52% of the vote last time. are the three points in the state of kentucky of people that would vote against any congressional leader of either party over what was there in 2008 whether it is mitch mcconnell or harry reid, there our guest is charlie cook.

>> caller: all right, this is the situation. i don't think you people recognize what this health care business is done in florida. i don't think -- i think mickie mouse could run against a democrat and win. any event, you people realize the unrest, dissatisfaction, and

anger you have stirred up in florida? thank you. host: thank you for the call. let me touch on a couple of points. in the 13th congressional district, we know former mayor of st. petersburg rick baker is not running. alex sync as the caller pointed out is moving into the district and running for the seat. this is one of the -- >> this is tampa from next door, right? host: this is one of the truly swing districts in the country. right? guest: bill young always held on. democrats looking forward to an open seat there for a long time. some special elections are not tipoffs of anything. this one would be a pretty fair indicator of sort of how the winds are blowing right now. but, yeah, sync's an established figure. her husband was the democratic

nominee against jeb bush when bush was running for re-election years ago her late husband to. the caller's other point, though, if you look at the latest polling nationally, 38% of americans have a favorable opinion of -- of the affordable care act. 38%, 44% unfavorable. so, yes, more people have an unfavorable view than favorable. but a six-point spread is hardly overwhelming. and so i think everybody's got their own perspective on the affordable care act. but if you look at the numbers nationally, there's not a majority opinion on either side of this thing host: the next call is bonnie, good morning, oklahoma city, republican line with charlie cook. go ahead, please. caller: yes, i found an article in one of these little books that said 25 years ago we had ronald reagan, johnny cash, and bob hope. now we have obama, no cash, and

no hope. and this other one says politicians and doctors need to be changed often. host: thanks for the call. i think we heard this with previous callers. we'll give you time to respond. guest: there are a lot of people on the left and on the right. they're funny. if you don't agree with them, you don't think they're funny at all. host: the news we indicated from florida. charlie krys, a former democrat -- former republican turn -- former independent, former republican governor announcing tomorrow he's in the race officially. and as a democrat, he'll face a lot of criticism from his former republican friends including the current governor of florida. guest: it's funny, charlie crist was a very popular governor then

the republican party moved out from under him. he was the old style, get along, go along kind of middle of the road right of center politician. and the republican party kind of moved out from under him. so he just moved left and the question is, to what extent will democrats embrace him on the one hand. does he bring any support from the republican side? probably not that much. but, you know, what we don't know is what's the republican nomination, what's the democratic nomination for governor worth in 2014. what's the political environment? if the previous caller is right from florida, the affordable care act, obama care is the dominant theme, it's negative, then that would argue pretty strongly scott would get re-elected in all of the things being equal. if not, it might go to the other direction. host: let's turn to new jersey. the race wednesday with chris cristi seeking re-election.

here's one of the latest ads by the christie campaign. >> i've been doing it 23 years never seen a governor up here before. >> he cares. he's not just going to do what he thinks people want to hear. >> the governor was doing what he thought needed to be done. e will doesn't take crap from no one. this is jersey, that's what we need. we were devastated. i don't think any other governor would have been able to do the job he's done. governor christie has our support. host: the question is not whether he's going to win but what percentage and who votes for him among the so-called reagan democrats or blue collar democrats. guest: i think he'll win by a big margin. i wouldn't pick a number. if it was anything less than b that, it would be a little embarrassing. he's going to win big. he's going to do extremely well among independents. and reagan democrats, i don't

think it's a real group anymore because i think what used to be called reagan democrats are called republicans. we're downscale working class whites have pretty much left the democratic party, moved over to the republican party to a large extent. i kri christie -- i don't think there's been any question that he would be a strong general election candidate for president. the question is, can the republican party, can he win a republican nomination. could a party that thought about michelle bachmann, herman payne, newt gingrich transition all the way over to where a chris christie is? that's a big spread in one election cycle. host: the latest from a democrat running for governor of new jersey. >> i'm the only one running for governor. chris christie has his sights set on the presidential primary. he defunded planned parenthood,

opposes abortion rights, vetoed gay marriage, and stands with the gun lobby. with 400,000 of us out of work, christie raised taxes on the working poor but won't ask millionaires to pay another dime. he wants to be president. i want to be your governor. host: is that an effective campaign strategy? guest: the question is -- i'm sure she's keen to specific moves that christie has made, but do people in new jersey think that's credible or not? i think most people in new jersey see christie as a pretty middle of the road independent sort of guy. she's got to try to paint him as far right. her argument, though there's certainly aspects of it that's technically accurate, it doesn't jive much with where new jersey people perceive him to be. and so i'd be surprised to see

that at work. you'd have to be more vividly demonstrate each individual thing about why his position is really different from people in new jersey rather than just saying so. host: this is a photograph of chris christie campaigning with mitt romney. double down by mark halperin. this headline of why this will never happen. get a sneak preview of this book? guest: i read some of the excerpts from it. the book "game change" from four years ago, there was no part of that book that was factually challenged that i'm aware of. so they had -- mark and john had a real hurdle to kind of get over to have a book that had a big as impact as this one or not.

this one, there's more things asked about, wait a minute, is that right? or is that an exaggeration. this book is not out, but there's more questions about this book than there were from the previous book. host good morning, on the line with charlie cook. caller: good morning, mr. cook, frank lautenberg, ted kennedy, they all died in office. we have too many people that die in office. and it annoys me that there's not more of a push for term limits. obviously, they're not going to say that in washington. they love the jobs there. we know that 7 of the top 10 wealthiest counties surround washington, d.c., why not stay there for a career. a great career, great benefits, great money around you. i mean, it's a life worth keeping, isn't it? and it annoys me that sometimes the tea party people are constantly ridiculed and mocked. constantly. but the details of what they

believe in, the radical concept of a balanced budget, that's really radical. smaller government, radical. why are they such bad ideas? host: term limits and tea party ideas? guest: my job isn't to focus on one party. but to focus on the tea party part, i share their frustration with washington, i share their frustration with congress. the question is is -- are term limits the answer? and i would challenge anyone to point to a state legislature in the country that has term limits and show me that they are a better, more effective, more responsive legislature because of term limits. because i haven't seen an example of that. what typically happens is the staff -- the legislative staffs

become more important because they have the institutional knowledge there. lobbyists have more influence there because they have the institutional knowledge and know more about the issues than the legislators. by the time the legislators get to the point where they understand their job and know how to do their job effectively, generally they're forced out by that point. so, i think that term limits is one of the things that sounds good, but when you look at where it's applied, it hasn't been that good. in fact, i would argue that california, one of the first places with limitations, the reason we're now starting to see better policies coming out of california is because of state legislatures -- because of redistricting reform and primary election reform. and both of those came through ballot initiatives, not from the state legislature. >> simple question. can senator mitch mcconnell lose in november 2014?

guest: sure, if mitch mcconnell couldn't lose, he wouldn't have raised gazillions of dollars, of course. i don't think mcconnell -- if he were to lose, i don't think it would be because he's a republican, because he's a conservative. i think he would -- if he were to lose, it's because people -- there's just a slice of people who would have voted against any congressional leader that's up this year. and that layered on top of whatever the democratic vote is, if he's over 50, he loses, under 50, he wins. no, it's a very, very, very competitive race. he's got a dicy situation having to maneuver with the tea party guy on the right and a strong general election opponent on the left. >> virginia politic, a state that has become purple, correct? >> absolutely. >> what's at stake? this is the paper on the editorial pages in the last 20 plus years endorsed the republican candidates for governor, did zmot this year. none of the above, why?

>> let's sort of go back. if we were talking last spring, steve, what i would have said is this -- you have two candidates that each one can count on their party's base. and nooiftever one of them had any particular claim on the voters between the 40-yard lines. you're right. virginia has become very much of a purple swing state. and now i think that there was a slight difference in that cuchinelli was extremely popular among conservatives, more popular among conservatives than the republican establishment, while mcauliffe was more popular in the democratic establishment than the liberals. each one had their base. what happened since then? i wouldn't blame cuchinelli's deficit in the polls entirely on governor mcdonnell. but if you look about the time that mcdonnell's legal problems,

ethical problems came to a head, that's when the momentum shifted in this race. before last spring, early summer, you know, cuchinelli was ahead in some polls, mcauliffe was ahead in some polls. it was a bit of a mix. since mid july, we now have 35 cob second tif polls showing mcauliffe ahead. some by one or two, some by 10, 11, 12. but 35 in a row, something happened. i think part of it was governor mcdonald, i think part of it is that cuchinelli is perceived to be more to the right than mcauliffe is to the left. i think you have a lot of voters who don't like terry mcauliffe but did like cuchinelli more. >> nationwide on xm channel 120. we welcome your listenership as well. in the baltimore-washington area. wcstfm 91 on the dial. too much for virginia voters in

his assessment, charlie cook, is that the election was decided on may 18. that's the day that commonwealth republican voters had a chance to decide between cuchinelli and bill boll b. the governor did not stay in the race because republicans decided to have a convention, not a primary. he's more of a party establishment, ken kuchinelli more of a republican renegade. >> i think as the republican party looks at his problems, they have a lot of problems right now, one of them is they're nominating some pretty exotic candidate. and whether it's, you know, out -- in these conventions or are pushing things furtherer to the right. i would argue with bill bolling were the republican nominee this year, if tom davis were the republican nominee this year, they would probably be ahead of terry mcauliffe law by a pretty

fair margin. they need to thee side, do they want to be pure or win elections. when democrats have done this, where the hard work has been nominated, they felt pure and self-righteous they were losing electionings but you have to be able to go to the middle ground. we see this as a pendulum that goes back and forth. right now, it's sort of on the republican side where they're having a problem coming one the most electable candidates. right now, arguably, republicans should have five more seats in the u.s. senate than they do. why? because of who they nominated in 2012, 2010, 2012 in places like nevada, colorado, delaware, this past time, indiana, missouri. they should have five more seats right now. this should be 50-50. it's 55-45. and it's because of who the republicans are nominating lately. this is a problem for thechlt

-- them. >> e.w. jackson, he said, quote, the gays are sick people whose minds are perverted. he argued that planned parenthood has been worse than the ku klux klan for blacks and said nonchristians practice some sort of false religion. the virginia governor's race on the air in norfolk virginia. >> terry mcauliffe will make an outstanding governor. it's mcauliffe who's been operating. it will be open, pragmatic, friendly to business, and committed to job growth. he has sensible, business friendly policies. he will work to bridge party divides and find common ground to move our state forward. that's what virginia needs. for us, the decision is clear -- terry mcauliffe. >> big differences for the race

of governor. expands obama care, increases spending, raising your taxes by $1700. tim cuccinella, cutting taxes. terry mcauliffe, expand obama care. cuccinelli, cut taxes. to stop obama care and higher taxes, there's one choice. >> i'm ken cuccinelli, candidate for governor. >> difficulties piled up. you mentioned a few of them. today the president will be cam page for terry mcauliffe. >> the mcauliffe campaign didn't have it go in earlier.

mcauliffe didn't try to nationalize this debate. i don't think the president's clinton will do a lot better. he and president clinton are best friends. it allowed him to raise a lot of money. that's the fact here that mcauliffe has a heck of a lot more money than cuccinelli. >> judy with charlie cook of the cook political report. good morning, judy. caller: i think the american people don't need more clintons and bushes in the white house. we've had enough of the clintons and bushes, hello. and hillary clinton is too old. the marriage is a joke. and i think she should receive a medal for one of the worst secretary of states ever. my last comment is our elections

are so full of voter fraud, i don't know how -- it's impossible to win any election ifs you support the constitution in this country. i like your comment on that. >> thank you, let me point out from kathleen parker this morning in "the washington post," there's this headline, a misguided witch hunt, demonizing hillary clinton will not do the gop any good to. the caller's point. charlie cook, your thoughts? guest: i think each side is greatly exaggerating what the problems are. we've seen in 41 years in politics, 30 years doing the newsletter, 29.5.

very, very few clear cut cases of election fraud, voter fraud in any races whatsoever. but at the same time, i think sort of on the democratic side when they complained about voter intimidation, i think those charges are exaggerated too. the fact is we have a lot of voters in this country who believes that either their side wins or the election -- it's not a matter of my side lost, it's we won or it's stolen. that's -- those are the only two options. and i see that on the left with -- on the left, particularly during the bush 2000 i've seen it on the left and on the right. >> let's take a look at the big picture in 2014. these are some of the races that charlie cook is toss up. let's look at the big picture. 218 needed for a majority of the

control of the house to determine whether it's speaker boehner or speaker pelosi. right now, 231 republican, 200 democrat, four vacancies including the one in florida's 13th congressional district. and as you look at the breakdown of solid seats, 199 solid republican seats, 165 solid democratic seats. then you throw in the likely or lean seats that's 32 republicans, 26 democrats, and then the true tossup races -- three republicans, ten democrats. >> that's when you see how hard it is for democrats to win a majority. you have 199 republican seats that's just -- there's no chance for democrats winning. there's only 18 -- the republicans -- that's just 18 short of what they need for a majority.

they've been hurt badly for the shut doub, it's been offset. the races haven't been shifted at all. because of that, voters want to punish republicans but they don't want to reward democrats. in terms for the house -- for the house to flip, for democrat cats to get a majority in the house, number one, we're going to have to see another shutdown or two or another default in the national debt or two or something that's close to those things because 13 months out, very few have shelf lives. republican incumbents and tim griffin and arkansas too, two weeks ago. they need dom up with some really first class candidates in a few more races.

each of those. that happens, they'll have a chance for a majority. right now they don't have that. >> former member of the house and veteran democrat from iowa who is leaving the senate seat saying iowa looks like he'll say democrat on harkins. why are big schott republican iowians afraid to run against bruce sprailey. >> i don't think the more electable republicans are afraid of bruce brailey, i think this is going to be a very, very messy fight for the republican nomination. the sort of hard core right of it was federal party is organized in iowa than almost anything else.

the main stream republicans have a better chance of winning the election. if congressman tom latham were in this race, they would have a clear advantage to win. but for whatever reason, he opted not to run. and so, you know, it will be probably a five-point race. but is it going to be in doubt? don't know. there's a chance they will go to the convoluted race that the candidates won't be able to tap in to the vote. >> among the 11 solid seats, one of them is senator lamar alexander who is facing a tough re-election. will he get the nomination? >> i think -- i think senator alexander will. it's a tea party challenge from

the last elections for orrin hatch. orrin hatch said i'll have to be a tea party candidate for two years to fend this off. and where alexander is being a bit more confrontational. in the shutdown period, he was questioning, do you people know arithmetic that it's an absolute impossibility mathematically to defund or repeal obama care. and that you can't -- he was being more strident, more aggressive in his approach to the tea party where hatch sort of if you can't beat them, join them at least temporarily. good morning, clay. >> good morning. >> it's usually conceded that the vote, the 18 to 25 to

40-year-old group voted for president obama in the past election cycle. that age group is paying into a system, social security and medicare which everyone knows they will never see in the present form. it will be a much greater form. now they're being asked to pay a tax which it is on obama care to make obama care work. when will that age group wake up and realize they're getting the short end of the stick and how will that affect the 2014 and possibly the general population of the election in 2016? >> thank you. >> the second caller directly related to the affordable care act and the impact next year. >> well, clay, first of all, i was in meterie a week ago. a week ago today.

>> let me approach it two ways. one more is a security point. i've talked about medicare and secondly, young people, how have the experts, left, right, middle, down the middle, agree that social security is not that hard a fix. that you could raise the income cap a little bit, raise the retirement age a year or two. there are small things that could be done to fix social security for another generation or two. social security is not really the tough one. medicare, medicaid, those are the really tough once. but social security, not so much. it's interesting to look -- i spent a lot of time on college campuses and a lot of times looking at polling of young people, the millennial generation. it's an interesting group to me. unlike conservatives, they don't

hate america but they don't love it. and this is a very, very skeptical about the effectiveness of government. they're not anti-government. if it worked, they would be for it. this is a generation at least on economic issues, it could be a jump ball generation. it could be a generation that republicans could go after, but, this generation is also fairly libertarian on social -- libertarian or liberal moderate on social cultural issues which the republican party as it's presently perceived is not. so it's sort of the social cultural issues primarily that i think are keeping republicans from being able to do as well as -- with that generation as they do. but, yeah, the caller is right. they want you to draw a line at sort of 40 years of age, 40, 45 years of age. and voters under that point vote very strongly democratic.

over that point, they vote very heavily republican. and ginn i turn 60 next month. that age group, we're dying off. and more to 18 -- republicans are doing -- in joke, in speeches, i sort of jokingly say most of us over 40, those are -- those over 40 are the future. and those of us over 40 are sort of the predeath. i put myself in that group. but the republicans are doing well with the predead but not doing well with the future. they need to figure out what it is. i don't disagree with the caller that the millennial generation ought to be looking at the retirements and fixing and reforming the entitlements if they're to have a shot at them whatsoever.

i agree with that. but it's the cultural issues that get in the way of the republican party with that generation. >> happy birthday. the ten toughest houses. representative kirkpatrick followed by representative barber who won in a special election and now serving a full term. and moving ahead to some of the races in florida, in iowa, and in new hampshire where carol shea porter is seeking a re-election. how will it determine what the rest of the night will be a year from now for each party. >> carol shea porter and rahal. new hampshire is one of the most fickle states out there. good republican year, republicans will win maybe both house seats. good democrat year, good democrats win both. in congress, out of congress, back and forth. it's a generation -- it's a state that's very, very acutely

sensitive. to national political directions and not a bad barometer to look at. when he came to congress, west virginia was a very democratic state. as social issues have started to take ahold and becoming more and more important, and then you fold in coal, the democratic party is in really, really, really bad shape and west virginia. and where the question is if any democrat could win in that district, it would be nick rahal? can they win on what republicans call the war on coal and rahal's

effort to distance himself from the party on that. one is a unique problem to that state. one state's a weather vain. >> two republican seats. one democrat seat. colorado 6 and the florida 13 which is vacant. and republican seat leaning democratic, california 31. representative hiller. >> this is a district -- president obama carried it by 12, 15 -- by a very, very big margin. but because of the new california system where everybody runs together regardless of party, and then the top two go into a runoff, and it just happened that the top two in that congressional race were both republicans. and so here he is sitting in a -- he's a republican sitting in an overwhelmingly democratic

district. but because of the quirky nature, you wouldn't have them that's that democratic. >> the two tossup races one year out, kentucky, mitch mcconnell's seat. and one held by democrats and one held by republicans. as you look at the race, how -- what's been the most you've had in a midterm election. do you recall, roughly? yofrm what's the most. but in 2010 -- going to election day, we had 10. of those ten, the republicans lost eight of ten. and in 2010, a great year, they picked up six seats overall, but a lot of them knew they were seats -- if you read time magazine before the election, republicans were going to pick

up this one, this one, and this one. of the seven going to election day, republicans lost five out of seven. that concerns republicans that the really close races in the last two cycles have been breaking against them. and i think that goes back to their problems with majority voters, young voters, women voters, moderate voters. they have to fix this. the fact for republicans -- if all they want to do is hold on to the house, they don't need to change at all. but if they want to win a senate majority, they're going have to make changes in their party. if they want to be competitive in their presidential race, they have to make a lot of changes in the party. with the way the lines are drawn and the way the population is sorted, the republican majority is relatively secure. to hold on to that, they don't have to change much. >> last call is brian from brick, new jersey. one of two states where voter goes to the polls electing the governor. you're on the democrats line, welcome to the program.

>> good morning. two things i wanted to talk about, can the citizens petition for term limits and also, if congress keeps bringing up entitlements, why don't they go against their entitlements first. we get $100,000 after three years for retirement money. >> thank you very much. i think they do get a pension. $100,000. >> i'm not familiar with the pension plan either. if the citizens were create in the white house website earlier in the obama administration. i don't want to sound sin kl, but, nobody listens. you know? this -- this is one of the things that politicians that we've seen democrat politicians and republican politicians do

that basically, you do to make people feel good, to give them an outlet, but they make zero difference whatsoever. i remember my late father used to get these questionnaires from the party -- he's a republican. get the questionnaires from the republican party. he fill out the reviews and all these things and i'd be home and i would say, dad, why are you wasting your time filling out this questionnaire on how you feel on issues. they don't even look at it. and both sides do it. and whether it's the signing petitions and sending him to the white house and whether it's filling out questionnaires for -- and mailing from the democratic and republican campaign committees, you -- it doesn't really do a lot. if it makes people feel better, fine. you'd be better off going to a

town meeting, seeing your member of congress some place and telling him how you feel face-to-face or write a letter letter, preferably handwritten, something like that, rather than signing some petition or, you know, this sort of thing. >> charlie cook, who is the editor and publisher of the cook political report. his column appears twice a week in roll call.com. >> national journal.com. >> previously with roll call.com. and by the way, the q&a interview earlier this year can be seen on our website at c-span.org or q&a.org. check out your work at national journal. take a short break. when we come back, going to turn our attention to the economy and wall street. bloomberg business week. and later the latest in syria and the humanitarian crisis going on in that country. tom vilsack is our guest on c-span's news maker's program

that follows "washington journal" at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. here's a portion of that interview. every dollar that is spent in snap, it stands to reason that if you can buy more at the grocery store, you can buy more at the grocery store. if you can buy more, that means the grocer has to stock more. that means it grocer has to purchase more that has been packaged and processed in the facility. all of those are in the supply chain. they're producer, farmer, ranchers, the producers have the market to sell more. it has an impact, all right? what we were able do is stimulate the economy. within 30 day, the moneys are in

the economy circumstance latering around. the cut that's occurred takes, i'm told, somewhere around the next ten years, $11 billion out of that system. >> why are more people dependent on food stamps even as the economy improved. >> when the president came into the office, there were less states where less than 50% of the people eligible already for snap were not participating in the program. now you see participation rates somewhere from 660% to 65%. we have an historic high in terms of people eligible for the program participating. the numbers are not a reflection of the current economic circumstance, they're a reflection of something more systemic in the american economy that spanned the last several decades. the president talked about this recently about the need to rebuild the middle class and the gap between rich and poor continues to grow in this country. >> reminder, tom vilsack is a guest on the news maker program

here on c-span and also on c-span radio. the contributor to bloomberg business week. good morning, thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> i want to talk about a couple of pieces that you've written. but first of all, the president's quiet bull market. you begin by saying happy october, just dropping a line to say it's official. your reagan era bull market has nothing on mine. make no mistake. best for barack. >> my editors let me get away with poetic license. that's how odd it is that obama had a better performing stock market than ronald reagan. the '80s, decade of decadence, junk bond pirates, champagne wishes and caviar dreams and obama has this quiet epic bull market since he was sworn in officially beating ronald reagans as of a week ago.

>> why? >> it's been strange. never have you had so much for so long parallel to a stock market. the conventional witz dom is we were in a period of the new normal. chronically high unemployment situations coming off of the biggest economic crisis in a generation. going to be very hard for us to regain the millions of jobs, to restore balance sheets and payrolls. at the same time, the bernanke federal reserve kept interest rates at zero since december of 2008, supplements that with emergency measures north of $3.5 billion -- $3.5 trillion of quantitative easing biling all manner of assets to smoke people out of the safety of cash and get them to buy stocks and real estate and condos in miami. that's down to the stock market. >> that's one of the big

concerns. because of the quantitative easing, is that the huge contributing factor to the bull market? >> that's the read on wall street. you can only keep interest rates so low for so long that people cry uncle. we saw that having a rebound. after all, real estate led us into this great recession of ours. the stock market is up 188% since march of 2009. and obama is not in any position out there to run on it, unlike the clinton bull market where you saw everybody talking about equities, the dot stock boom, this has not done that. people are more risk averse than they've been in a generation. on balance, it's been the greatest one in history. >> is that because of the

unemployment rate, is that the overall mood of the country? what are the contributing factors? >> all of the above. wall street is having a great time right now. wall street is coming off of a period of tarp money. mr. obama against the bailouts and the bonuses and having to hold his nose to do what he did for aig and goldman and zacks. citigroup was nationalized. freddie maye and freddie mac. for these to have gotten their groove back, by some measures, they profits are records again, it's hard to go out there and say, well, i'm celebrating the investor class side of wall street, not the golden parachuted ceo class that's going to have a great year for bonuses and pay. so it's hard to dance on that line if you're the president and get political points out of it. especially when the economy needs to recover more than 2 million jobs just to get back to the prices on the unemployment rate. >> that's what ron says on the tweet saying high unemployment means we're working two jobs for

each person, the companies are making more money, more money equals higher stocks. >> this is a record period for the accumulation of cash. companies have been uniquely good. if you're a fortune 500 company, you've been able to refinance your debt at record low rates. go back on a yield start environment and put out a 30-year debt at tiny rates because people are so starved for return, for interests. that has not recoursed yet to them hiring. i don't feel in this environment that demand is high enough and consumers are eager enough to go out and justify the payroll. >> you mote a dismantled piece. dismantle the decented dow. the dow jones industrials continues to be synonymous with the stock market. the move will kick off the nightly news even though it's never been less representative

than the realtime american economy. can you explain. >> with apologies toed charles dow. i'm just a young whipper snapper. no business criticizing the exchange. yet, the most quoted, most celebrated index, if you watch the evening news, it starts with the dow. it's not the biggest success story is not included, apple. the other big success story, google. it cannot incorporate high-priced stocks. the stock price shouldn't mean anything. it's the company's market capitalization and determine the s&p 500. but had this dow jones industrials industrial average b, had it incorporated the likes of apple and google instead of some of the old world companyings, the dow would be far higher than it is today. so if anything, the investor mood is demonstrated.

they drop investor sentiment as a huge psychological plus. >> cisco, performance drainer, aig, bank of america, hewlett packard, and alcoa. >> these companies were in the dow. sills co-is still in the dow. aig with the bailout in the dow. alcoa a few weeks ago in the dow, an old smokestacker. instead of being able to bend the methodology to include the important flights of google, they don't include nike, goldman sachs, bank of america, they included a few years ago. they had to kick out because the stock price is so low. this might all be a tempest in the teapot. in the end, can you ma'ammingen if we were able to say, dow, 20,000 every night. that would be impossible with the huge tech companies in the index had the backers had to -- the index keepers had the foresight and ability to put them in. >> why 30 in the dow?

>> just the way it was turn. 12 initially, then up to 20 before the crash of '29. then since the middle of the century, theyle thought they needed to up the number to 30 in the index. strange things. ibm have the most disproportionate weight. they're good companies but by no means as important as an apple or a google to what this economy does today in the realtime. >> in the week ahead, a lot of focus on twitter. >> everybody is talking about twitter and the status here. and the ix po that's coming up. you guys know it very well. cspan wj. i've learned to know and love it myself. in the age of 140 character, everybody has to hang a shingle on the medium. it 's the way to broadcast news, to get news. the question is, how are they going to monetize all of this

popularity. it helped to foemt a revolution in iran in the middle of 2009. a lot of the messages were transmitted over twitter. we saw it in egypt. it's a revolutionary product. it' going have a gang buster ipo. the question is, can this company make money? if you're a google, if you're a facebook, you ask for the kwefs, a lot of high hopes. >> david joining us from long island, the democrats' line who writes for bloomberg business week and one of the most recent columns on the president's quiet bull market. good morning, dave. >> hey, good morning. i'm just curious about -- i know recently the federal reserve was talking about tapering and whatno whatnot. then the ten-year treasury bond spiked a little bit. almost 3%. the fed saw the interest rates

shoot up. then can't take it now, blah, blah, blah. now, is this indicative of the fed being trap in a situation that can never get out of, like raises interest rates, just collapses the whole ponzi scheme situation that they created. or be able to get out of it? and when you're talking about the dow, isn't it odd -- isn't the dow kind of like a leftover relic because it's an industrial index? at this point, do we have any industry left? isn't it all gone? >> got a response. two points. >> on the dow -- it's called dow jones industrial average but it includes tech companies like cisco and ibm. qualifies as the nexus of technology and finance. old industrial complex and ge, all of the above. it's a perspective. on the other question, it's a

very, very, very good point. you notice chairman bernanke gave testimony in may, late may, where he flicked at this idea of tapering some of the quantitative easing, some of the extraordinary stimulus on the order of $85 billion a month of purchases of treasury and mortgage securities that have been piled on in addition to keeping zero interest rates since december of 2008. that's the fed's traditional lever of monetary policy. when they suggested to taper, the experience in volatility, everybody started to worry about higher interest rates. in the end, the economy wasn't strong enough, especially with the federal reserve with transition from bernanke to janet yellen for them to take away the stimulus. it's worrisome, we're not talking about increasing interest rates. we're talking about them pulling away some of the emergency --

there's quantitative easing one, quantitative easing two. this is qe-3 they call it. the mere hint of taking back a little bit of that punch bowl for calling closing time, the marngt through a hindsight threw a temper tantrum. the fed still sees weakness in the economy. they still want to be maximum stimulus north to have companies out there to go out there and hire people again. we haven't seen that happen. we've seen the money trickle down into stocks. junk bonds, to real estate. it has yet to force itself to the companies they say things are so good that we can't afford to not hire more people. >> on the issue of twitter, this is a tweet from one of our viewers saying, bingo, how does twitter make money. will it ever? i'm not sure. it won't buy at ipo prices. >> uh you have the promoted tweets. i get about five of them from

the olive garden. i don't know to what end, to what they pay twitter for. but it's unique in that it's realtime way of jumping on things if you notice your college football game is trending or you're a buffalo wild wings or you are on that scene, you advertise on to that. shows how realtime advertising is trending and how they're keeping the pulse of the consumer and the media consumer. the media subscriber which frankly is on twitter while he's watching in the college football games, this might be live tweeted right now on c-span wj. it is certainly a very robust and well attended medium. so it's up to them.

they're trying like linked in, like facebook to have a hand in all of these pots. >> republican line, good morning. >> good morning. you know, this president obama, he's really to me is a secular social iles. he's more concerned with expa expanding government and the entitlements thereof than he is of promoting free enterprise and capitalism. that segues nicely to the fact that he likes to -- he wants to redistribute wealth. obama care is case in point, america never asked the government to take over the 1/5 the economy, health care. it's come full circle. he doesn't realize the pain. my deductible went from 500 to $5,000 and my premiums doubled. that's not the exception, that's the rule out here.

now i know that he and his policies and his political perspective, that's what is causing this nightmare. ed he has liberal media carrying water for him every day, that's sickening given the pain in america right now. but because they don't care either. they help promote that one republican vote. but i think in 2014, he's awoken a sleeping giant and i think the american people are going to revolt against this big government intrusion and it's real simple, the republicans have to tell them, it's a simple failed pitch. you have to tell america that if you like obama care and the effects there of and a program that's come full circle, then you vote for the democrats. if you want to repeal it, you want to get back to the more creating jobs in the american people, that's what he wants his focus to be. >> a little off topic for this segment. we appreciate the call and the

comment. what the caller was saying, what we could see in 2014. >> the liberal media, i wish i could be elite. obama care you had people saying it would be ruin nows. trifecta of democrats in washington would plunder the budget. divided the government, sequester a debt ceiling, all of this stuff kicked down the road. at this time, wall street learns to live with it. the s&p 500 surges. since we had the credit rating downgraded, the market is up massively. the bond market has done very well. there doesn't seem to be this concern about divided government, even in the 11th hour of the debt ceiling debacle

and the government shut down and the sequester happening and lots of people in d.c. being taken out of the consumer class for several weeks. after all, they were temporarily unemployed. the market did not worry about it. the market -- you want to answer -- it seems to look past these things and is very kind of nonplussed by what's going on in dc right now. 2014, a shift to more democrats on the hill? are the republicans going to feel the pain in the polls right now with the tea party polling where it is? it's almost just a logical fallacy to think that only the defiantly capitalist pro market republican will get a good reaction in the market. george w. bush took over when the stock market was in dot-.com bubble territory. it was deflating. the market under his watch was down 40%. it culminated in the meltdown of 2008 and you had what was looked

at as a fairly friendly and amenable securities submission and it's on the subprime disaster. the most recent column about the quiet obama rally. norma is joining us. this program carried live on bbc in great britain. joining us from hastings, england, go ahead, please. >> norma? glad to hear from you. >> hello, hello, am i on air? >> you sure are. >> i would like to ask the gentleman about aig-sp. i think the average person in this country wouldn't know if you went out to the street what a bull and bear market are. they wouldn't know. and didn't aig-sp open in britain by side stepping american banking laws?

because the trader exactly that, that they opened up in britain in order to side step the american banking laws. and if that is the case, and american taxpayer took the quantitative easing that aig created, is there anger across america that it was done here if not some claims are true? i don't quite understand it. maybe the gentleman could explain what scott patterson meant. >> the book is a must-read in terms of what it picks up on the aig and the disaster on the cleanup. the unit was based out on london. and london and manhattan and new york city, they've been duking

it out for a role of the globe's elite financial services of the center. that may have been involved when things were frothy in the middle part of the last decade to get units over to london. you can see that also with the caribbean and certain companies that are domiciled in bermuda. nevertheless, there was a lot of anger originally with aig. this was the most egregious bailout. the very definition of private profits and socialized risks. . .

that rescued its counterparties that dealt with it. there was a lot of indignation. a lot of this happened five years ago, and this has been a long, drawnout economic crisis and recovery. this is a tweet from a viewer who says, the fed painted itself into a corner with quantitative easing, whether qe

qe2, and cannot stop without creating the mother of all bond market selloff. considering the example of the taper tantrum, how are you going to telegraph that were going to have to withdraw stimulus, and then actually withdrawn that stimulus from $85 billion? month to $60 increaseyou going to interest rates, which have been a rock-bottom levels for five years now. people might remember chairman folder in the early 1980's who had to battle inflation. he really had to ratchet up interest rates to kill inflation to save the broader economy, and

set the stage for ronald reagan's morning in america. there is a lot of valid criticism out there that the fed is swelling another bubble. a huge credit and real estate bubble that followed a real estate bubble. you have saying great analysis that the fed's assets exchanged -- extended to the african such a, and there is global appetite for yield and risk because rates have been this low for this long. a tweet from a viewer. a caller on our republican line. i want to associate

myself with the previous caller, mike. a great representative of bloomberg businessweek because you are part of the liberal elite media. on that front, give me a specific example. how is he done that, in your eyes? conversationg this , he has focused with tunnel thatn rather than the fact you are on a riverboat -- he's finally getting around to it now, but he's not associating them with the obama administration or democrats. was that a complement?

i just call them as i see them out there. not in anyone's pocket, and i have no vested interest in capitol hill or the white house. this has not been a black and white market. it is one that has been largely controlled by the federal reserve. ben bernanke was a republican appointee. this has since self removed from partisanship. somewhat removed from partisanship. tea partyat's why the is such a change in the republican. bernanke certainly would not appointee. tea party you talk about apple and google being left out of the dow jones industrial average. this comment probably applies to

google more than apple. arguably in extremely new business for which there is no track record that exists beyond 20 years, which is a very very short time. things such as the nsa penetration of google and facebook could dramatically impact apple stock -- i'm sorry, google stock. inould be very interested your comment as to whether you think it will impact apple anywhere nearly as much as it impacts google. guest: google is worth more than microsoft. has disrupted my industry, magazine publishing trade has disrupted advertising -- publishing. has disrupted advertising. google owns youtube, where a lot of original content creation has moved to. the market is telling you it is

more relevant than microsoft, previously the world cost most valuable company. -- world's most valuable company. not making any call. that is what the market is saying. this is a company that no one in the year 2000 had heard of. apple, there is that old line that the president had. there is an apple device in everybody's hands. i have several at home. you see college students having them. is single-blet handedly killing the pc industry. this is the world's most valuable company by market capitalization, and yet it is not in the world's most quoted stock market events. host: if you're interested, you

can go to facebook.com/cspan. the question was based on whether or not you feel you have an opportunity in this country. let me share with you what gallup found back in 1952. , in 1952,e question eight percent said not much of an opportunity. 87% said there were plenty of opportunities. not much of an opportunity, 43%. 52% saying plenty of opportunity. this is what it looks like on our facebook page. we have a comment from one of our viewers. fewer americans believe there is plenty of opportunity to get ahead.

is a demoralizing time if you are john q invest her -- investor or john q public. people are taking apprenticeships and internships and part-time work, many of the working asbury's does at starbucks just to get health insurance. -- many of them working asbury's -- as bararbucks starbucks just to get health insurance. host: patricia merideth

following up on the facebook comments. she says, america lost its upward mobility when big businesses shipped our jobs overseas. leonard, joining us from tennessee. good morning. partr: john boehner call -- paul ryan said that collecting taxes from the poor is stealing. homeless shelters being shut down. public health clinics shut down. housing now being provided. nursing home medication, social bigrity, ssi -- not provided, nursing home medication, social security, ssi

being cut. in 1996, 85 million people were below the poverty line. 100 million people per year are going to die over the next 10 years because of cuts. if they take a way, they don't give anything to the poor. people a year are going to die. people in nursing homes are going to be kicked out grea. do you want to take your assessment and turn it into the form of a question for our guest? caller: there is no way to question it. this week, there are a

record number of americans on food stamps. host: and they saw their supplement cut last friday. guest: an inability of washington to come up with more than a temporary extension to avoid the sequester. that is an immediate hit. if you are someone who collected $50 a week and benefits and you are suddenly looking at $44 a week, and food prices are still going up. this is not any one party's fault rat. d.c. is operating unreal stopgap measure. everything is stopgap since the credit ceiling debacle. life, the sea's unwillingness to act and reunite

-- d.c.'s unwillingness to act and reunite would be permit such -- punished by bondholders. in portugal and greece, when send theiris, they bond yields ever higher and make them cry uncle. we can go back to public-sector .nions and demand cuts that has not happened in the united states because we are in the unique position of having the world's reserve currency. ,hen something goes wrong global investors pile into treasuries and effectively bail us out. we would not be able to carry the kind of debt mode and deficit spending we have right was two points higher than it is now. host: our conversation with roben farzad. he wrote, the president's quiet all market.

-- bull market. lives inrom greg, who sioux falls, south dakota. comparing this market to the 19 26-19 29 market, in your opinion, is this a massive bubble? this is being compared to bubble markets. it is a much more involved economy and market and regulatory system than it was in the roaring 20's. you have the federal reserve doing anything like it was doing in its infancy in the roaring 20's and gilded age. this is a real-time experiment going on. the federal reserve had a zero interest rate policy for five years, having thrown nearly $4 trillion of conjured up money to buy assets to stoke an appetite for risk taking. that -- how do you reverse that?

i mentioned paul volcker. this is worrisome, in the you can have a new person, janet yellen, taking over the federal reserve. if the economy and market keep gaining, the fed at the outset will have to come out and telegraph how and when is going to withdraw the stimulus. i can't imagine the first day when they actually hike interest rates after all these years for the market will process that. you have a compelling argument that there is a codependency right now. do you see any potential roadblocks in the senate confirmation process for janet yellen? people whoe will be ask tough questions. the tea party contingent is out there saying we cannot just be printing money.

must be moreeserve vigilant about this kind of spending, and you need to browbeat congress more and exert your moral persuasion. i think they will give her a rough time. unanimity that she will be the next federal reserve chairman, and she's a very esteemed vice chair now, and she has been sabbatical with record simpatico with record low policy. a comment from a viewer -- guest: it's a great question, how many of these companies are enjoying ridiculously low interest rates. imagine being able to go out and

borrow money for 30 years at 3.5 points, or littlest - -- a little less than four points. if you are credit worthy and can do that, you have the last laugh. are takinghat advantage of the record bond market are availing themselves of this. they also see this with stock buybacks, if you can borrow money on ridiculously cheap ofms and buy back the slug your stock which you perceive to be undervalued, you are engaging in arbitrage that will be to the benefit of your shareholders. never have junk-bond investors had it this good. not even in the era of michael milken. you would not typically associated that with the obama

administration. this crisis was so deep that the measures necessary were of such urgency and emergency nature that that kind of rising tide of liquidity is lifting all kinds of boats. host: joe makes this point on our twitter page. adam, from connecticut. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about the numbers of the dow, especially .round 15 five or so how come the media is not really reporting that in just minutes for inflation, the dow is at 1999 --

the broader market had only round-trip to back to y2k levels recently. when adjusted for inflation, 3%, you look at 2.5% or have been down as an investor in the stock market. i don't know why it's not reported more in inflation- adjusted terms, and ditto with oil prices. you talk about the oil shock in the early 1970's. it would be a lot more helpful if more of my peers reported this in apples to apples inflation-adjusted terms. host: lisa is on the line. caller: when will the whole system collapse because of all the illegal activities, fraud, credit derivatives swapping that occurred on wall street? to me it is all smoke and mirrors.

we be into debt trillions of dollars to china, a communist nation whom we're supposed to hate? one banks to go to prison for all this illegal activity -- bankster go to prison for all this illegal activity? ,irst they were too big to fail and recently i've heard they were too big to and guide. -- indict. they created all this pain on mainstreet. i keep praying every day for all of them to be lined up, the politicians right there behind them. guest: where should i start? walmart is china's sixth-largest trading partner. there is a codependency between the u.s. and china.

the rebate that you get from that is being able to walk into a walmart or target as an american consumer and buy a dvd player for $25, or get any sort of apparel from places like bangladesh or cambodia or cheaper that are much to manufacture than they would have this job been kept in the united states. there has been no shortage of hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs. you talk about nafta, you talk about china's entry into the wto. it has affirmed more than any other time in history how intertwined our economies are. have beene could those bond vigilantes. aboutike to go out there the recklessness of the budget shutdown. but they can't turn around and

not by government debt to punish this kind of profligacy because the marriages who are would not be buying more products made in china, and the government of china would be imperiled because people are racing from the countryside to factories to keep jobs. in any position to go out there and say, we don't like you. you just don't want to rock the boat. on the question of penalties for wall street executives, this is a topic of much indignation when i go out there and report stories. it was the perfect crime. if you believe it was a crime to take private profits and this kind of risk-taking with socialized risk, it happened under the nose of the ftc and the presidential administration.

making -- were not guilty of fraud, we are guilty of messing up. those bonuses were not clawed back, and no one was thrown in jail. the financial products unit get to keep all the money made. private profit, socialized risk was the legacy there. it was looked at as too much of a bruising battle. want to go back to your piece, one of the reasons we invited you to come on. there is a quote in your piece. you mentioned that the market is amped up, but the impact on main street has been modest. guest: i don't think you have

had a bull market run of this size. 188% for the low-end march 2009, accompanied by an americans taking money out of the stock market in record numbers. than $400 billion has been taken out of equity funds in the past four or five years. people are really disgusted by what happened in 2008, especially after they got their hearts broken in the.com bubble. only now are they coming back to the stock market. it is yet another example of sell low, by high. of bloombergarzad businessweek, thanks for being here. when we come back, we will turn our situation -- attention to the situation in syria. first, a look at the other programs on the other sunday morning networks, the sunday

startingc-span radio at noon eastern time. nancy callow is in our studios. c-span radio is heard nationwide on xm channel 120. >> syria is one of the topics they will talk about on the sunday morning talk shows, including discussion on the affordable care act and pending nominations in the u.s. senate. thecan hear rebroadcasts of five programs on c-span radio beginning at noon eastern with "meet the press." today's guests include mitt .omney and deval patrick at 1:00 p.m., this week -- "this week" with rand paul. 2:00 p.m., "fox news sunday." dr.izzy kill a manual -- ezekiel emmanuel. graham.ndsay

with kennyhe union" croley talks -- kenny croley talks about kelly ayotte. also on the program is michael hayden, former head of the national security agency and cia. the sunday network tv talk shows are on c-span radio and brought to you as a public service by the networks and c-span. rebroadcasts of the shows begin at noon eastern with "meet the press." 1:00, "this week." 2:00, "fox news sunday." 3:00, "state of the union." "face the nation." country on xmthe satellite radio. we are now on channel 120.

download our free app for your smart phone or listen online at cspanradio.org. believer in what they call the unauthorized biography. unauthorized does not mean untrue. it means you're doing it without the cooperation and blessing of your subjects. i do believe it's a legitimate, history, way to cover especially public figures that have spent many years and millions of dollars creating their own image. is valuable sometimes to go behind that. one who's trying to get behind that, and tell you what's going on. biographer kitty kelley sits

down for your calls and comments beginning at noon eastern today c-span 2." on host: we want to welcome mona yacoubian, the senior middle east adviser with the stimson center here in washington, d.c. let me begin with the news. john kerry making an unannounced visit to egypt as he makes a 10 day trip through the region. how would you assess u.s.- egyptian relations at the moment. guest: you are quite strange, certainly since the ousting of president morsi in july. ,he u.s. has been vacillating not wanting to call it a military coup, but being under a lot of pressure from advocates in congress who are questioning why we continue to provide aid. perhapsy kerry is

seeking out a way to repair the relationship. host: it was reported by the egyptian press on friday, the state department did not respond to inquiries, and it was not confirmed until after he landed on the ground. this is a country we provide over $1 billion of aid per year, have had a long time relationship with dating back to the 1978 peace accord between the egyptians and israelis signed by president carter. guest: it's based to the controversy characterizing the relationship, where the eight is questioned by some who feel that egypt has a military coup. desire to quietly repair relationships to ensure the egyptians, and figure out the way forward. our guest is mona yacoubian. our lines are open.

the numbers are on your screen. by all accounts, it is meeting deadlines with regards to destroying or getting rid of its nuclear weapons -- chemical weapons, i should say. guest: an important deadline was met this past week, for all of the equipment used to produce and execute michael weapons has makes theoyed -- chemical weapons has been destroyed. chemical -- task of destroying syria's chemical weapons stockpile remains ahead.

host: can we trust the syrian government? they have cooperated so far with the mission. there are questions about whether or not the syrians have divulged all of their stock. the word is that they have. what is really going to be difficult is the coming months, when these weapons will need to be secured and probably taken out of the country and destroyed. that is as much about the situation on the ground. there is a raging civil war in syria. the real challenge will be whether or not the inspectors have the access to the sites and are able to get the weapons secured and out of the country. host: this is a map of the region. syria is in the center. you can see the adjoining countries. the number of syrian refugees

that have fled the country as a result of the civil war, well over half a million in turkey, well over 793,000 in lebanon. 125,000 in egypt great over half a million in georgia and jordan -- egypt. over half a million in georgia and jordan. there are reports of polio inside syria. what's it like on the ground there? guest: it's a humanitarian catastrophes. of syria's population has been displaced. this once solidly middle income country is at a reemergence of polio. nutrition, starvation. it is at a catastrophic place. probably one of the key imperatives now is to begin to assuage and resolve some of the humanitarian suffering inside syria. host: if there is western relief

would theia government accept it? guest: the issue is now of success -- access. the issue is getting that assistance into syria. there was last month a presidential statement issued by the un security council. russia and china signed on that the supplies and assistance get into areas in which civilians are essentially trapped. to date, the syrian government has not cooperated. that needs to be a key area of focus in the days and weeks going forward.

host: there is a hearing that took place before the senate. bob menendez questioned the u.s. basinger to syria about the situation -- ambassador to syria about the situation on the ground. [video clip] >> what is our strategy to get the russians -- what do we need to determine what it will take for them to change their calculus? to get the strategy moderate vetted elements of the opposition to be able to come together with a plan for the country? what is our strategy to be able ,o get the russians to help us assuming that can be done, to press assad to ultimately leave? continueur strategy to to move forward on the chemical

weapons destruction, as we are trying to do all these things? i do not get a sense that we have a strategy. i wish the authorization this committee passed in may would have been used at that time because the dynamics were different. could have far better affected the efforts towards the negotiation that we still aspire to. but the administration chose not to use that at the time. , that was yacoubian from last thursday. a long-standing criticism of the obama administration. there really has not been a coherent strategy on syria. part of the reason we are having a difficult time pulling a strategy together is because there are no good options in syria. it is just fraught with risk.

while there is clearly a strategy lacking, i also think to be fair it is an enormously complicated challenge. from ahis is a tweet viewer. guest: the syrians had to submit an inventory of their chemical weapons. that inventory was looked over by the united states and russia, both of whom have intelligence on searing chemical weapons and those of whom believe that what the syrians submitted was very close to what their estimates were. this point, the assessment is that the syrians have been fairly forthcoming. whether or not they attempt to secure or hide away those

chemical weapons is a valid concern. host: you spent how many years in syria? andt: a year on fulbright went back again for another six months as an intern for the u.s. state department. served as special advisor to the u.s. institute of peace. she is now a senior middle east adviser with the stimson center. leo is on the phone from the bronx in new york. my question is regarding the article that appeared in the "wall street journal" on friday about syria. my take on that is that the future of syria and iraq is to become like lebanon. there does not seem to be a history of centralized government in syria and iraq. what's your opinion? guest: there is a history of centralized government in syria and iraq.

if anything, there is a history of authoritarian and repressive government. your question really speaks to growing concerns in iraq and syria of jihadist influence. over the last six or seven months, there has been a real resurgence of al qaeda elements in iraq. we are seeing a deepening influence of jihadist in syria. ,he concern is that over time you will have a blurring of the borders between eastern syria and western iran, in which you have a live arena of jihadist to our entrenching themselves. host: our guest also studied at harvard, earning an mpa from the kennedy school of government. tom is on the independent line. caller: i feel as though for the

had a0 years, we have failed middle east policy. our policy has been more towards israel's interests and the interests of the united states. i believe it started with lebanon, what to syria, -- went to syria, iraq, afghanistan, almost paikkistan. while we're doing this, the chinese are looking at us and smiling while they build up the navy with aircraft carriers. where are running around with a lot of second-rate countries and trading those dollars. world, ourn the

reputation is completely destroyed. disagree.ould have to certainly in what were looking at now in the middle east, i don't think israel figures into any of this. falloutooking at the from the arab uprising. what was remarkable was that neither israel nor the u.s. figured into those protests. now we're seeing the fallout of those once peaceful road tests ways,y destabilizing including in syria, which is having spillover into lebanon and iraq. i disagree with the contention that this is about israel. host: edward is joining us on the republican line. the assistance that we provide syria, are there limits

as far as any weapons based assistance that would take place out of what we give us taxpayers over there? host: we don't provide direct financial assistance to syria, do we? guest: we provide humanitarian assistance which has gone to the u.n. and multilateral agencies, some of which goes through the syrian government. point?s that your caller: pretty much. thank you. guest: the issue of lethal , lethal sport to the syrian armed opposition is done covertly through the cia. because of the nature of the know the exactt

nature of what is being sent or how much. there have been allegations that things have started to move more towards the end of august into september. it's not clear how much is going. the are advocating that program should become a pentagon program, which would make it more open and make it much more robust. point,aura makes this when was the last time you heard our government say that assad must go? guest: now the gears have shifted towards diplomacy, first with a joint framework with the russians that led to a un security council resolution to read syria of its chemical weapons. beings also more work done with the russians to see if we can rejuvenate the geneva process.

while i think we have been clear that the geneva process in the u.s.'s interpretation should lead to the end of assad's rule, and its replacement by a transitional governing body with full executive power -- that is the position. lot said about the calls for assad to go. it's important to think about when that call was initially made in august of 2011, the context at that time was quite different. it was at a time when you had essentially two peaceful protests, largely peaceful protests that led to presidents in tunisia and egypt leaving. libya was in the throes of its uprising, and there was nato support. my own sense is that that call was not a call for regime change

in the way that was the case in iraq in 2003. it's important to think about the circumstances, at least initially, in which the call was made. a caller from ohio. i get tired of the united states and western nations being financially involved in their issues over there, when some of the oil-rich arab nations don't seem to be providing enough of their own help. the caller makes a good point, which is that it's clear from polls and other things that does notcan public have much appetite for sending significant financial resources

to the middle east. frankly, nor are we in a position to continue to do that after having gone through our own domestic budget troubles. there is a fair question to be raised about whether or not the gulf countries can play more of providing thes of financial assistance necessary , and alsotransitions contributing more to the humanitarian efforts that are being undertaken on behalf of of syria. the gulf countries, with the exception of kuwait, have been remiss in providing humanitarian assistance to syrians inside or outside the country. oscar --weet from traditional governing body, our own? guest: i meant to say transitional governing body.

the agreement stipulated that the way to transition in syria is to put together what is called a transitional governing body, which would take the place of president assad. is leftt assad's role purposely ambiguous in that statement. that's really what i was referring to, how do we get to a post-assad syria. host: what was it like when you live in syria 30 years ago? guest: it is incredibly beautiful, rich in history. i was overwhelmed by the warmth and hospitality of the syrian people. that was at a time when u.s.- -- despite thes fact of our two countries not seeing eye to eye, the syrian

people were the most hospitable that i had encountered. host: rick is next on the independent line. i find it rather amusing that the discussion of sovereignty is bandied about when it comes to the relief aid. we don't have a problem violating the sovereignty of pakistan or yemen or these other countries when it comes to droning. why can't it just come through the u.n., there will be a core door open for relief supplies on this date, any resistance will be met with unequivocal force from any side? guest: i share the caller's frustration. u.n., one would not get the support for any kind of use of force. we have seen this over and over again with the russians and chinese vetoing even mild statements of disapproval.

it is important to note that they did sign onto the need for creating greater access. that russiaway pressured president assad to both acknowledge his chemical weapons arsenal and agree to disarm, and similar pressure be placed on the assad regime to provide greater access to people who are suffering literally in the suburbs of damascus. that is an area we need to focus on more intensely. host: can you respond to this headline from friday? an estimated 10,000 al qaeda members. foreign jihadists find a safe haven. guest: the role of foreign fighters is becoming an increasing concern in syria. the 10,000 member may be a bit

high. do we know that they are all connected to al qaeda? we don't know that. without a doubt, the growth of foreign fighters in syria and the deepening influence of jihad is and is of significant concern , and one that will shape more and more our response and response of our allies going forward. this is a tweet from robert, who says, what are the chances of a kurdish state forming as a result of the conflicts we have seen? guest: i don't see a supranational kurdish state. you have the kurdish regional government in iraq. in terms of syria, the hasheastern part of syria

become a semiautonomous region arehich they kurds establishing themselves. it is also important to note this is still a contested area. there have been some fairly brutal battles between kurdish fighters and jihadist fighters who are equally attempting to establish themselves there. host: anthony is next from hialeah, florida. as soon as we get all the weapons of mass destruction, which they truly have, we will send in military and they will do what they have to do. one thing that upsets me is these republicans cannot give president obama credit for anything. president obama has serious giving up their chemical weapons. -- syria giving up their chemical weapons.

we sent thousands of our children in. yet you guys have no problem backing george bush. one more thing i would like to say is that you say it's not about israel. please, hold me to this, c-span. you let people say the craziest things, and then you thank them for their call. ridiculous. you need to have a thumbs-up up or thumbs down on the people that make comments. this comment, sequestration that we have -- we take money away from americans. we take money away from other foreign countries except israel. find out who wrote the bill to wear when it comes to sequestration, we as americans will have our money taken away, but israel will still get funded like they were before sequestration. this is not the united states of israel. why is israel still getting funded and we are taking money

away from the american people, but we still fund israel, these republicans jump on the line and say, we need to stop giving people money. when it comes to israel, you guys are hypocrites. host: we will get a response. what i would like to respond to is his initial point, an interesting one which has to some people being disapproving of the chemical weapons agreement. because disapproving the notion is assad has agreed to disarm his country of chemical weapons, but most of the killing the regime is undertaking is done with conventional weapons. the chemical weapons agreement really does not get to the issue of civilian safety and the mass

amount of killing that's going on in syria. the second critique, there are those who say, this has simply given assad a lifeline. it is allowed him to be in power through at least it-2014, when the chemical weapons destruction is supposed to be included. there are critiques of the cw agreement. the prose of the agreement outweigh those cons. there are people who don't think that was the way to go. host: how important is the role that israel plays in the region to the u.s.? guest: israel is one of our most staunch allies in the region. i think a lot of this raising of

israel as a distraction to what the real issue is on the ground. linda is joining us from california, republican line. i have the view that it's a no-win situation for the u.s. to get involved in this situation. it's a very complex thing. sending aid that is so-called humanitarian aid in my mind is reminiscent of the korean situation for it for years we saw the korean people -- situation. for years we saw the korean people suffering. we send aid, and it went to produce more weaponry. it ends up in the hands of the syrian government, ultimately. military aid, whether it is in syria or that which we get to egypt, can eventually be used against us.

the regime there cannot be trusted. straighttell us with a face they don't have any more chemical weapons and whatnot, but you cannot take that at face value. trust the citizenry at large because there is a lot of muslim brotherhood influence come against us. the difference being with israel, they're not threatening us. they are our allies. nations,ighboring arab have not been active in sending aid. this underscores the complexity of syria and the challenges that are inherent. it is essential to make the

provision of humanitarian aid a key priority for the international community. there is some cross-border aid that is going into rubble controlled areas -- rebel- controlled areas. it is done very discreetly. there are people that are working internationally as well to get assistance to people in need in rebel controlled areas. host: if you want to get more information, log onto stimson.org. want to share one other moment from the hearing last thursday. the senate foreign relations committee and u.s. ambassador to syria, robert ford. [video clip] >> are you satisfied with the strategy we have in syria with the opposition? do you feel good about it? do you feel good about the

strategy we have now with these people that we have left out on a limb and told them we were going to support their efforts against this regime and against al qaeda ? do you feel good about what our country is doing with the opposition right now to allow them to have some kind of say so in the future of this country? is not a person on my team who does not feel frustrated by the syrian problem in general. we do provide support to help them against the regime curren. i talked to him, he thanks us for what we do. would they like more? of course. work we are the doing to help activists and political people that are trying to hold things together in places like aleppo just to keep

the hospitals running, to keep electricity in hospitals to invide -- electricity hospitals, to provide clean water -- our resources ourselves are not unlimited. we are doing what we can with what we have. host: another look inside what syria is facing. guest: ambassador for the's -- ord's frustration has to do with the fact that the u.s. is the single largest contributor of assistance. we are doing the most we can even the resources we have under difficult circumstances. host: your website is stimson.org. a question, who funds the stimson center? guest: a variety of sources. a winner of the

macarthur foundation's creative institutions grant, one given to institutions involved in creative work. we are a nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank. we do get some money from governments, the u.s. and other governments, and in some cases from corporations. by,: thanks for stopping mona yacoubian. we will continue the conversation tomorrow morning on c-span's "washington journal ~ ." as the budget talks continue, , former republican staffer for the senate budget committee, will be with us. we continue our monday series on the affordable care act. be joiningby will us. your money segment, we

will check in with a housing reporter from "the wall street journal." 7:00is tomorrow morning at a.m.. thank you for joining us on this sunday edition of "washington journal." >> a discussion on nsa surveillance programs, and whether or not they comply with current privacy laws.